Carl Laemmle Jr.

Biography

Carl Laemmle Jr. was an American film producer and studio executive from Chicago, Illinois. He was the son and the intended heir of the film producer Carl Laemmle (1867-1939), co-founder and studio head of Universal Pictures (1912-). Carl Junior served as Universal's head of production from 1928 to 1936. He either personally produced or greenlit the production of several hit films of the early sound era. Carl Junior is primarily remembered for producing the war film "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930), and the horror films "Dracula" (1931), "Frankenstein" (1931), "The Mummy" (1932), "The Old Dark House" (1932), "The Invisible Man" (1933), and "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935). In an effort to modernize the studio, Carl Junior invested in "state of the art" technology for sound films, and high-quality production values. He also produced some of the studio's early color films, most of them being musicals. In several cases, the money invested in a film's production exceeded the revenue from its release and distribution. By the mid-1930s, the studio was cash-strapped. The final film Carl Junior produced was the ill-fated romantic musical "Show Boat" (1936), based on the 1927 musical of the same name by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II. The film was intended to be a prestigious "big-budget" production for Universal, but the company did not have sufficient funds at the time. At the insistence of company shareholders, the Laemmles (father and son) took a production loan from the Standard Capital Corporation. They pledged the Laemmle family's controlling interest in Universal as collateral. When the production of the film went over budget, Standard called in the loan before the film's completion and release. The Laemmle family was unable to pay, and Standard ceased control of Universal in April 1936. Carl Junior fully retired from the film industry in 1936, at the age of 28. The new studio head at Universal was the financier John Cheever Cowdin (1889-1960), who soon instituted severe cuts in production budgets. Part of the new regime at Universal were the British film distributors Charles Moss Woolf (1879-1942) and Joseph Arthur Rank (1888-1972), who bought a significant stake in the studio. Carl Junior spend the rest of his life in relative obscurity. In September 1979, he died from a stroke. He was 71-years-old at the time of his death. He was buried in the Chapel Mausoleum at Home of Peace Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery in Los Angeles. His father had been buried in the same cemetery. Carl Junior is fondly recalled by horror fans for producing some of the earliest hits in the genre, but his historical reputation is otherwise overshadowed by more influential studio executives of the sound era.